Time's Cruelty *WWF/AS THE WORLD TURNS CROSSOVER*
by Juliet316 2000
Summary: As the World Turns's Paul Ryan is about to discover the identity of his fiancee's savior *Crossover with the World Wrestling Federation*
1. Prologue

Here's a new Crossover for everybody.  Takes place a month after the much of the current As The World Turns storyline with a few changes.  
  
TITLE:  Time's Cruelty Prologue/? *WWF/ATWT Crossover*  
  
AUTHOR:  Juliet  
  
EMAIL: Sweetvalley99@aol.com  
  
RATING:  PG - 13  
  
CONTENT:  VIOLENCE, ADULT LANGUAGE  
  
CATEGORY:  ADULT, ANGST, HORROR, DRAMA  
  
SPOILERS:  For As The World Turns:  The story takes place about a month after Rose escapes from the spa, so I'd say right up today's episode (4/15/02) with a different ending to the Babs/James/Jack part of the story.  For the WWF:  About Insurrection 2001 I think.  That part will make sense in later chapters.  
  
SUMMARY: Paul figures out who Rose's savior Libby really is.  NOTE FOR ATWT VIEWERS: I know the show chose to kill off Libby, but I'm keeping her alive in this with a twist. Luckily the ATWT writers are thinking more or less along the same lines I was at the point of the 4/15/02 episode so I won't have to change too much else, although after the 4/15 ep things are more or less AU in Oakdale.  For WWF viewers' things are AU after Insurrection 2001  
  
DISCLAIMER: AS THE WORLD TURNS and its characters are property of Proctor and Gamble.  Vincent Kennedy McMahon owns all of wrestling, including the WWF characters represented in this story. There will be a more WWF oriented sequel to this, so WWF fans shouldn't be too disappointed if their faves aren't shown in the first story, as the first story will be a more ATWT based story.  Eric Bischoff owns himself.  
  
DISTRIBUTION: The Realm, Fanfiction.net under the name Juliet3:16 2000.  
  
Time's Cruelty  
  
Prologue  
  
Paul Ryan watched as his beloved Rose slept an uneasy rest.  He'd known that Rose had been having nightmares about her rapidly aging condition since her return to Oakdale a month ago.  All he ever wished was to make the nightmares go away.  He couldn't care less about her looking old.  She was still Rose D'Angelo, the fiery, spunky, take no prisoners girl he'd fallen in love with all those months ago.  
  
Then his mentally unstable mother, Barbara Ryan, conspired with Paul's maniacal father James Stenbeck to send Rose, Carly Tenney, and Emily Stewart to a "spa" somewhere in the world where a Dr. Weston began treatments on the three women that resulted in rapid aging.  Rose was the only one to escape.   Carly and Emily were never found.  
  
They had no clues to Weston's or Carly and Emily's whereabouts.  The only clue they'd had was lying in a hospital bed at Oakdale Memorial, barely hanging onto life.  
  
When Jack Snyder went to Belgium, where Rose had nearly been buried alive, he'd gone straight to the cemetery that Rose was before being released from her coffin prison.  While there, a delivery truck showed up with half a dozen coffins.  Jack managed to subdue the gravediggers and inspected the coffins.  There he'd found an unconscious, barely alive Libby Mueller, who'd helped Rose escape from the "Spa." He'd arranged for Libby to be transferred back to Oakdale to receive immediate medical attention.  
  
And Libby's still in a coma, Paul thought bitterly. He glanced at the locket on Rose's nightstand the locket Libby had put into Rose's spa robe before helping Rose escape in the coffin.  The locket showed both a young Libby and an aged Libby after Weston had gotten done with her. Even after a month of looking at both the locket and the aged, comatose Libby, Paul still couldn't get over the nagging feeling that he knew Libby from somewhere.  
  
Sighing Paul wrapped his arms around Rose and let her heartbeat lull him to sleep.  
  
Okay, any comments on this? Helps the muse get the story out faster. 


	2. Chapter One: Familar Stranger

TITLE: Time's Cruelty  
  
AUTHOR: Juliet3:16  
  
EMAIL: Sweetvalley99@aol.com  
  
RATING: PG - 13 (Nothing worse then you'd find on the soap AS THE WORLD TURNS or language you'd hear on WWF television)  
  
CONTENT: VIOLENCE, ADULT LANGUAGE  
  
CATEGORY: ADULT, ANGST, DRAMA, HORROR  
  
SPOILERS: Up to about Rebellion for the WWF, about to 4/15/02 for ATWT.  
  
SUMMARY: AS THE WORLD TURNS' Paul Ryan is about to find out who his beloved Rose's savior really is. *a mixture of ATWT and WWF elements in this story, leaning towards ATWT's side. Will have a more WWF oriented sequel*  
  
DISCLAIMER: Proctor and Gamble own all the characters as seen on AS THE WORLD TURNS. Vince McMahon owns the majority of the wrestlers appearing in this story. Eric Bischoff (Yes, he'll show up in this one) owns himself last I checked. Scott Hall is property of NWA - TNA.  
  
DISTRIBUTION: The Realm, FanFiction.net. Anywhere else is free to ask.  
  
  
  
Time's Cruelty  
  
Chapter One.  
  
Familiar face in a Photograph  
  
Paul Ryan showed up to work late the next morning. Due to his mother's recent actions and mental health continuing to be in question, it was decided that Paul would continue on as Barbara Ryan Original's CEO for the foreseeable future.  
  
He didn't want to be there, but he'd have felt like a hypocrite if he'd stayed home or at the hospital with Rose after telling her that, until they'd found out a way to reverse the aging done to Rose's skin and they found Carly and Emily, then best they could to was to try to resume as normal a life as possible under the circumstances.  
  
Paul sighed as he sat down at his desk and checked his mail. Most of the mail was from BRO's Paris office. No big surprise to Paul. He'd had his Paris secretaries start forwarding BRO'S official Paris documents along with his personal effects from his desk to Oakdale a month after he returned when he'd realized that it was not going to be a short - term visit in Oakdale after all.  
  
With the mail delivery being what it's been these days, I'm not surprised that some of this stuff's coming a few months late, Paul thought as he began opening Fed - Ex packages and sorting through them.  
  
As he was opening one of the Fed - Ex letters, a white envelope fell out. The name on the fat envelope caught his eye: Shane McMahon.  
  
I haven't thought of him in over a year and a half, Paul thought of his childhood friend and college bud, who he'd last seen in Paris almost a year and a half ago.  
  
Paris, November 2000  
  
A knock on the oak door barely registered in Paul Ryan's consciousness as he went over BRO's foreign accounts for the millionth time to make sure everything was accounted for.  
  
"Mona, I said I wasn't to be disturbed for anything," Paul called out to his secretary, agitated over being disrupted.  
  
"Even for a long - lost friend?" a tall dark - haired man spoke from the doorway's threshold.  
  
Paul looked up in surprise and made his way to the male standing in the doorway.  
  
"Well, Shane McMahon as I live and breathe. How are you man? It's been, what, since college?" Paul barraged his old friend while giving Shane a small quick hug.  
  
The other man shrugged, "Yeah something like that, he said.  
  
"Well, come in, sit down," Paul asked, ushering his friend in and closing the door behind them. "We've got a lot of catching up to do."  
  
Shane McMahon sat down in a laid back fashion. "Well, the WWF's in England for a Pay - Per - View and I thought I'd schedule a stop - over to see an old friend. So how's your Mom?"  
  
"Mom's doing great. The business is good. She's happily married, my younger brother and sister are thriving in Oakdale. Life couldn't be better, " Paul answered crisply.  
  
"Uh - huh, that's why you moved to the city of lights and do nothing but work," Shane pointed at the accounting figures on Paul's desk.  
  
Paul laughed. "Look who's talking Mr. 'I want to run my father's company, when he retires.' You and Stephanie both, a couple of 'all - work, no - play workaholics just like me. Paul filled too glasses of Scotch and handed one of them to Shane. "Face it McMahon, you mean and Steph are all products of our upbringings."  
  
"Well, speaking of my little sister, she's a married woman now," Shane revealed.  
  
Paul sat down in shock. "Stephanie? Little Steph? Married? The same woman who said men were disgusting and she would never marry one, especially on of her daddy's wrestlers?"  
  
Shane chuckled at that, "not so little anymore and yes, the one and the same Steph. Just recently celebrated her one year wedding anniversary as a matter of fact."  
  
"Damn, so who's the lucky guy?" Paul asked. Seeing the glint in the other man's eyes, Paul's shock intensified, "no way! She actually married a wrestler?"  
  
"Yup, his name is Hunter, and he treats her like gold."  
  
"Maybe I should keep in closer touch," Paul remarked.  
  
"You might have better luck with that watching our television shows," the heir to the World Wrestling Federation joked to the heir of Barbara Ryan Originals.  
  
The two old friends talked for nearly two hours, catching each other on their lives since college graduation. When Shane left at the end of those two hours to oversee the UK PPV in his vacationing parent's absence, Paul and Shane promised to keep in better touch with the other with promises of more phone calls and visits Shane left Paul with photos of the McMahon family for Paul and his mother Barbara to have.  
  
Two days later, one of the WWF's planes, the one carrying Shane, Stephanie, her husband and the majority of the WWF wrestlers disappeared over the Atlantic while coming home from the PPV.  
  
May 2002, Oakdale  
  
Paul stared at the envelope that he'd never touched since the day Shane had given it to him, finding it two painful a reminder of his friend and the McMahon family's horrific loss, not just of the two heirs to the WWF but of the company's collapse and eventual absorption into the conglomerate World Wrestling Entertainment shortly after the tragedy as well.  
  
Sighing, Paul broke out of his reverie and tore open the white envelope. A tumble of pictures poured out of the plain white envelope.  
  
As Paul sorted through the photographs, Paul saw first Shane with various guys, which Paul presumed to be wrestlers along with old friends, Rodney, Pete, and Joey. A few photos showed a smiling Vince and Linda McMahon, which Paul thought were probably anniversary photographs taken before their children disappeared. One picture turned facedown with a name inscribed on the back of it made Paul smile melancholy as he went to turn it over.....  
  
......And nearly had a heart attack upon seeing the person's face. He stared at the woman in the photograph intently, particularly noting the woman's soft brown hair and intense green eyes.  
  
Paul brought up a mental picture of Libby, both young and old. He couldn't be completely sure, but the resemblance was uncanny, especially the eyes.  
  
Libby was a dead ringer for Stephanie McMahon Helmsley.  
  
Like it? Hate it? Please let me know by leaving me feedback.  
  
Juliet3:16 (Proud American) [pic] 


End file.
